Staff

Bethany McCoy

Bethany McCoy was raised in a culture and family focused on service and volunteerism in the Portland Metro area and continued to serve her community throughout her adult life. After moving to Arizona she promptly began seeking out volunteer opportunities in the realm of sexual health, childcare, and community development . After volunteering for a few local organizations and not quite finding her niche, she was introduced to Peer Solution’s Summer Program and fell in love with the organization immediately, particularly the wonderful children and families that they both create and serve. Bethany began volunteering for Peer Solutions in 2016 and has stuck with us since. She began working part time for us in the beginning of 2018 and is now a full time staff member. Bethany's vision for the world aligns entirely with that of Peer Solutions, she believes that a culture where we practice safety, equity, and respect will put an end to the normalized violence, harm, and silence that we all experience every day.

Contact Bethany at: bethany@PeerSolutions.org

Adam Jesudason

Adam Jesudason was introduced to Peer Solutions through the Coverdell Fellowship Program for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. He is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Namibia from 2014-2016 as a Math Teacher. He has been committed to education for the past 5 years of his life, including working with ESL students at International High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and being a summer camp director in Colorado. He has always been passionate about youth development and empowerment and wishes that there was a program like Peer Solutions when he went to middle and high school.

Adam is currently studying to earn an MBA at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He has researched about important investments and financial decisions in this program and he steadfastly maintains that the most important investment society can make is to invest in the education and the future of our youth. This is what Peer Solutions strives for and therefore Adam is very grateful to be a part of the Peer Solutions family. In his free time, he enjoys playing guitar, hiking, speaking languages, and learning.

Contact: Adam@PeerSolutions.org

Jennifer Rauhouse

Jennifer Rauhouse founded Peer Solutions in 1996 with the vision of safety, equity, and respect (SER) normalized in our hearts, homes, schools, workplaces, governments, communities and world. This is a world free from the root causes of harm including Oppression, Silence/Denial, and Normalized Harm (OSN). It takes everyone, everywhere, every day. We are all Peers, We are all the Solution.

Jennifer has developed, researched, implemented and evaluated positive youth development and leadership primary prevention strategies since 1981. (Before there was a term primary prevention.) She is deeply committed to permanently ending the root causes of domestic, gang, gun, sexual, and relationship violence, child and substance abuse, homelessness, suicide, depression, poor school performance, bullying/harassment, criminality, and more. The root causes of all of the above are similar if not the same. To prevent one is to prevent them all. She serves on the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s Advisory Council, has established sexual violence prevention guidelines with the CDC, and has provided primary prevention training to all states with an emphasis on youth and community development and mobilization. In May of 2017, she received The Saguaro, Life Time Achievement Award from the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence.

Courtney Ward

Courtney Ward is a Program Coordinator/Educator in Denver, CO, who is passionate about primary prevention and cultivating societies intolerant of oppression, silence and denial and normalized harm. She believes that youth have the motivation and fervor to prevent violence before it begins by using positive solutions in their homes, neighborhoods, schools and communities. Courtney attended Arizona State University and obtained a BA in Psychology and Sociology as well as a MSW and most recently became a Licensed Master Social Worker. When she is not working with youth, she enjoys hiking, traveling and spending time with friends, family and her wonderful cat. Courtney Ward has worked with Peer Solutions for the past 8 years and is now supporting Peer Solutions 10-15 hours per month.